Everyone, please invite your family and friends to this very interesting event. Book Launches is one of FAL’s regular programs, along with Bus Tours of Historic Filipinotown and our Children’s Reading Program. This particular book is very relevant to today’s world and I hope you all have a chance to read it. – Jonathan Lorenzo ----- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 24, 2008 CONTACT:Jonathan LorenzoAdministratorFilipino American Library (FAL)Tel: 213-382-0488Email: filamlibrary@sbcglobal.net NEW BOOK EXPLORES THE DYNAMICS OF INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS LOS ANGELES (March 2008) – Interracial unions are increasingly commonplace and this relationship genre is the focus of Sam Cacas’s new book BlAsian Exchanges, a novel. It will be featured in a Filipino American Library (FAL) Book Launch on Saturday, April 19 at 2:00pm at FAL (135 N. Park View St., Los Angeles). To RSVP for this free event, please contact filamlibrary@sbcglobal.net or 213-382-0488. In FAL Book Launches, authors introduce their Filipino works of literature with residents of Greater Los Angeles. Admission is free and donations are accepted. Snacks and drinks will be provided. This event is co-sponsored by Filipino American Service Group, Inc. (FASGI), Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC), and Burger King Corporation. BlAsian Exchanges, a novel is about Earvin Ilokano, a Filipino American journalist in San Francisco, who decides to become a novelist in the midst of career and work frustrations. The tale he writes is a recollection of his attraction for Black women and Black culture in relation to his racial (Asian American) and ethnic (Filipino American) heritage. To stoke his poison pen, journalist Ilokano - who is married to a Black woman - recruits Black women on the Internet to serve as his muses and consequently makes the story more "interactive" and the writing experience a little spicier for the reader not to mention the writer. For more information on this book, please visit www.blasianexchangesanovel.blogspot.com Sam Cacas writes a column on Black-Asian unity for AsianWeek.com and also co- moderates a Yahoo! discussion group – PowerCouples AMBW – focusing on Black women and Asian men. His nonfict writing has been published in San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Bay Area Reporter, San Jose Mercury News, Advocate, Human Rights (ABA), and California CEO. BlAsian Exchanges, a novel is his first book. Founded on October 13, 1985 by “Auntie Helen” Agcaoili Summers Brown, FAL is the first and largest Filipino library in the country with a collection of more than 6,000 titles. Its mission is to actively promote the history, culture, and professional achievements of Filipinos and Filipino Americans through the book collection, leadership development, and cultural programming, thereby contributing to the achievement of a culturally dynamic, multiethnic America. Given that FAL primarily survives on individual donations and one major annual fundraiser, we hope we can rely on your financial support so we can continue our programs and services throughout the year. Please feel free to donate online at www.filipinoamericanlibrary.org. If you would like to send a check, please make it payable to “Filipino American Library” and mail it to 135 N. Park View St., Los Angeles, CA 90026. All donations are 100% tax-deductible. FAL is a division of the Filipino American Heritage Institute (Nonprofit Tax ID Number 95-4282571). It is open Mondays-Fridays 1:00-5:00pm and by appointment. For more information, please contact Jonathan Lorenzo, the FAL Administrator, at 213-382-0488 or filamlibrary@sbcglobal.net. (If you would like pictures to include for publication, please contact Jonathan Lorenzo.)
JONATHAN LORENZOAdministratorFilipino American Library (FAL) 135 N. Park View St. Historic Filipinotown Los Angeles, CA 90026-5215Tel: 213-382-0488Fax: 213-382-0478Email: filamlibrary@sbcglobal.netDonate Online: www.filipinoamericanlibrary.org- Visit us MON-FRI 1-5pm & by appt. -
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2 comments:
Sam,
I'm teaching a class that Saturday or I'd be sure to attend. Black-Asian relationships, especially the history of African Americans in the Philippines is a special pursuit of mine. I've done research of such relationships going back to the Buffalo Soldiers (black US Army troops) who served in the Fil-Am War. Some of those soldiers, David Fagen being the most noted, as, I'm sure, you know, seeing the Filipinos and identifying with their culture and aspirations, deserted and some even switched sides like Fagen to fight for Filipino independence. Over the years of US colonial rule, Af-Ams in military service there continued to find love and a new life in the Philippines, and many stayed on after their military service. I came to know the country myself as a refugee relief worker at the big refugee camp (the Philippine Refugee Processing Center) on the Bataan Peninsula of Luzon in 1989-90. I plan to retire to the RP within the next year or so. I've interviewed a number of Af-Ams currently resident in the RP with the hope of putting together a piece for a publication like Asia Week on this whole history. Two notable books on the subject are written by Willard B. Gatewood, Jr: Black Americans and the White Man's Burden (about the experiences of Black troops in the Fil-Am War) and Smoked Yankees, a collection of letters from Black soldier writing home to family and the Black press from 1899-1903, during that awful campaign of slaughter and suppression.
In any event, I hope I can catch up with you elsewhere and I look forward to reading your book. By the way, have you ever seen the movie, "Catfish in Black Bean Sauce"? It's about a Vietnamese orphan raised by Black couple. He identifies with Black culture and has a Black girlfriend. It stars the late Paul Winfield, Mary Alice and Sanaa Lathan in one of her first screen roles. The film is the largely autobiographical story of its screenwriter/director. Check it out if you haven't seen it.
flounder:
Thank you for your message. It's so good to hear of someone who is on the same plane of interracial unity as I am. I remember reading an article about David Fagen many years ago in the Black Scholar. AmerAsia Journal sounds like a good place for the study you are thinking of publishing in and Asian Week would definitely be interested - particularly myself. I have just accepted an invitation to write a montly column for Asian Week focusing on Black-Asian unity. It will debut next month. I will check out the books you mentioned. BTW, what class do you teach? Do you know anyone in the L.A. area who might be interested in hearing me speak about my book, in particular Black-Asian relationships and Black-Asian unity? The latter is the subject I have been honed in on most of my life and am now working on a book that deals with the common history that links Blacks and Asians. I've got to get to my writing now but I just wanted to connect with you on my end. Thanks again for your message. Let's stay in touch.
Take Care,
Sam
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